Suicide bomber kills four near US embassy in Kabul

A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up on a busy shopping street near the heavily-fortified US embassy in central Kabul yesterday, killing four people and injuring several others, officials said.

It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks to hit the Afghan capital, and comes around three months after a massive truck bomb ripped through the same area, killing about 150 people.

“At around 10am a suicide bomber set off his explosives near a private bank and close to Massoud Square. More details later,” said Najib Danish, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s interior ministry.

He added in a message on Twitter that four people died in the attack.

The blast happened at a time when many officials were expected to be collecting their salaries ahead of this week’s Eid holiday.

Kabul Bank, the private bank hit by the blast, usually pays the salaries of security forces personnel and government employees.

Images broadcast on Afghan television showed the bank’s mangled exterior.

Waheed Majroh, a health ministry spokesman, said one dead body and eight wounded people had been brought to Kabul hospitals.

The blast occurred on a street lined with shops and banks leading to Massoud Square, near the United States embassy and Kabul’s diplomatic area.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Taliban insurgents are at the peak of their summer fighting season, and have launched deadly assaults around the country in recent weeks.

Since Nato forces ended their more than a decade-long combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, Afghan troops and police have struggled to beat back the resurgent Taliban, while facing the growing menace group.

It was the latest explosion to rock the war-weary Afghan capital and comes a week after United States President Donald Trump committed American soldiers to Afghanistan indefinitely.

On May 3, a powerful blast targeting a foreign forces convoy near the US embassy and Nato headquarters killed eight people and wounded 28.

Later in the month a massive truck bomb tore through Kabul’s diplomatic quarter, home to the presidential palace and a host of foreign embassies, killing about 150 and wounding around 400 people, mostly civilians.

On June 3, seven people were killed after suicide bombers attacked the funeral of a protester who was killed the day before during a demonstration against insecurity in Kabul. — AFP of the Islamic State